Explore our Cohorts

Asking Questions about Alcohol in Pregnancy Study

AQUA at 6 is a follow-up of the orginal AQUA cohort, including neurodevelopmental assessements and neuroimaging

• N:

  1570 mother/child dyads, 518 children participated in craniofacial imaging sub-study at 12 months of age and neurodevelopmental assessments at two years sub-study

• Recruitment:

  Women attending one of seven antenatal clinics in 2011-12 who are < 19 weeks pregnant with single baby

• Study type:

  Longitudinal pre-birth cohort study

• Study focus:

  The impacts of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and health and development of index child at birth, and at one, two and six/seven years of age.

Clinical review of the Health of 22-35 year olds conceived with and without Assisted Reproductive Technologies

The Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Studies, comprises of the Comparison of health and development of young adults born with and without assisted conception (IYAGS) and the Clinical review of the Health of 22-35 year olds conceived with and without Assisted Reproductive Technologies (CHART)

• N:

  540 ART conceived adults agreed to be contacted about follow-up studies; 532 spontaneously conceived adults agreed to be contacted about follow-up studies

• Recruitment:

  Young adults who consented to follow up after the IYAGS telephone interview

• Study type:

  Retrospective case-control cohort study

• Study focus:

  Clinical review of respiratory, cardiac and metabolic health of young adults born with and without assisted conception

Comparison of health and development of young adults born with and without assisted conception

The Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Studies, comprises of the Comparison of health and development of young adults born with and without assisted conception (IYAGS) and the Clinical review of the Health of 22-35 year olds conceived with and without Assisted Reproductive Technologies (CHART)

• N:

  656 IVF mothers and 547 offspring; 868 non-IVF mothers and 549 offspring

• Recruitment:

  Mothers recruited through IVF clinic databases, their young adult offspring approached with maternal consent, and controls recruited by cold calling

• Study type:

  Retrospective case-control cohort study

• Study focus:

  Health and development of young adults born with and without assisted conception

Australian Temperament Project

The Australian Temperament Project is one of the longest running studies of social and emotional development in Australia.

• N:

  4046 Generation 1 (G1) participants (parents of G2)
  2443 Generation 2 (G2) participants
  1167 Generation 3 (G3) participants (offspring of G2)

• Recruitment:

  Families with a 4-8 month old child who attended local urban or rural maternal and child health centres in one of twenty LGA areas in Victoria between 22nd April and 6th of May 1983. In 2012, offspring of these babies were recruited and make up the Generation 3 cohort.

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

• Study focus:

  (1) Young people’s psychosocial development from infancy to adulthood, investigating the contribution of individual (including temperament and behaviour), family, peer and broader environmental factors to adjustment and wellbeing.
  (2) Identifying social determinants in the first half of the life course that shape length and quality of life in the second half of the life course.

Australian Temperament Project: Generation 3 Cohort Study

The Australian Temperament Project is one of the longest running studies of social and emotional development in Australia.

• N:

  1167 Generation 3 (G3) participants

   

• Recruitment:

  in 2012, offspring of Generation 2 participants (who were recruited as babies) were recruited and make up the Generation 3 cohort.

   

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

   

• Study focus:

  Young people’s psychosocial development from infancy to adulthood, investigating the contribution of individual (including temperament and behaviour), family, peer and broader environmental factors to adjustment and wellbeing.

   

Baby Biotics

• N:

  167 infants and their mothers

• Recruitment:

  Infants recruited from 4 health clinics/centres; aged between 0-3 months with infant colic

• Study type:

  Double blind randomised control trial, with longitudinal follow-up

• Study focus:

  To investigate the impact of the probiotic, Lactobacillius reuteri, on infant crying and sleep, maternal mental health and family quality of life, and to determine the long-term outcomes of infant colic

Barwon Infant Study

• N:

  Recruitment commenced June 2010 to June 2013. A total of 1158 mothers were enrolled, with 1074 eligible infants making up the inception birth cohort

• Recruitment:

  Antenatal recruitment of eligible women from the Barwon region of Victoria (≤ 28 weeks gestation)

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  An investigation into the early life origins of a range of non-communicable diseases in the modern environment

Children’s Attention Project (CAP) including Neuroimaging Sub-study (NICAP)

A subset of participants from CAP were recruited into NICAP to investigate through neuroimaging, brain structure and function change for children with and without ADHD

• N:

  CAP = 497; NICAP = 197

• Recruitment:

  6 – 8 year old (Grade 1) Melbourne (Australia) school children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort study with longitudinal sub-study

• Study focus:

  To examine a broad range of risk and protective factors and ADHD-related outcomes (including academic, mental health, family and child wellbeing and quality of life) in children with and without ADHD

Child to Adult Transition Study

• N:

  Commencement sample of 1239 students and their parents

• Recruitment:

  Children in metropolitan Melbourne aged 8-9 years of age (Grade 3)

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort with nested sub-study

• Study focus:

  The effect of puberty on health and emotional development.

Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)’s Child Health CheckPoint

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) Child Health CheckPoint is a one-off physical health and biospecimens module as part of the longitudinal cohort study

• N:

  1874 (plus 1874 parents)

• Recruitment:

  11-12 years old B cohort participants

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  The linked LSAC-CheckPoint dataset allows researchers and policy makers to investigate how biology, environment and psychology, under the skin, during childhood and midlife via physiological adaptations that may lead to the major causes of death and morbidity

Childhood Overweight BioRepository of Australia

• N:

  ~500 as of June 2016

• Recruitment:

  Presentation to the specialist weight management service at The Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne)

• Study type:

  Repository of data and biological samples

• Study focus:

  To develop a unique biorepository of data and biological samples from overweight and obese children

Early Language in Victoria Study

• N:

  1910

• Recruitment:

  Maternal and Child Health Nurses approached all parents of babies aged 8-10 months of age, within six Local Government Areas of Melbourne, Australia

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  Speech and language development from infancy to adolescence. Sub-studies include investigations in to stuttering, autism, and bilingual language development

Generation Victoria

• N:

  Target: approximately 150,000 newborns and their parents

• Recruitment:

  All babies born in Victoria in a two-year period and their parents

• Study type:

  Longitudinal birth cohort of infants and their parents

• Study focus:

  GenV’s primary objective is to create large, parallel whole-of-state birth and parent cohorts for observational and interventional research, which will help solve complex problems facing children and adults and lead to better prediction, prevention, treatments and more equitable services

HealthNuts

• N:

  Whole cohort 5300; Clinic/food challenge 1026

   

• Recruitment:

  Infants around 12 months of age, were recruited from Melbourne metropolitan immunisation centres

   

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort study with clinical sub-study

   

• Study focus:

  Understanding the natural history of allergic disorders including food allergy, asthma, eczema and hay fever.

   

International Youth Development Study

IYDS is an international study, with participants in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States

• N:

  Total: 5769; AUS: 2884, USA: 2885

• Recruitment:

  3 year levels (5, 7, 9) of school children from Victoria and Washington State

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  Risk and protective factors, as well as healthy and problem behaviours in young people and whether or not differences in Australian and American cultures and schools affect youth development

Memory Maestros

• N:

  1802 Whole cohort, 453 nested RCT sub-sample

• Recruitment:

  Grade 1 Melbourne (Australia) school children

• Study type:

  An observational cohort with a nested Randomised Controlled Trial

• Study focus:

  Examine the relationship between working memory development and educational outcomes

Melbourne Infant Study: BCG for Allergy and Infection Reduction

• N:

  Total: 1272; 637 cases, 635 controls

• Recruitment:

  Recruited during pregnancy or shortly after birth from 3 maternity hospitals across Melbourne and Geelong

• Study type:

  Open randomised controlled trial

• Study focus:

  MIS BAIR is an open randomised controlled trial (RCT) that will assess the effect of neonatal BCG vaccination on clinical allergy and infection outcomes in infants in Melbourne (Australia)

The Mothers’ and Young People’s Study

The Mothers’ and Young People’s Study (formerly known as Maternal Health Study) is a multi-wave, prospective cohort study investigating the health and well-being of over 1500 first-time mothers and their firstborn children

• N:

  1507 mothers

• Recruitment:

  First time mothers recruited in early pregnancy at six metropolitan public hospitals in Melbourne, Australia

• Study type:

  Longitudinal mother and child cohort study

• Study focus:

  Common maternal physical and psychological health problems, health consequences of family violence for women and children

The Peri/Post-natal Epigenetic Twins Study

• N:

  212 twin pairs and mothers

• Recruitment:

  Women attending a multiple pregnancy clinic at 3 Melbourne (Australia) hospitals who were 18-22 weeks gestation

• Study type:

  Longitudinal pre-birth cohort study

• Study focus:

  Investigating the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) paradigm in twins, looking at developmental plasticity through epigenetic changes

The right@home nurse home visiting program

• N:

  722 families; 363 intervention, 359 controls

• Recruitment:

  Pregnant women attending 10 antenatal clinics in Victoria and Tasmania between May 2013 to August 2014 were enrolled if eligible

• Study type:

  Randomised controlled trial (researcher blinded)

• Study focus:

  Promoting equity in children’s early learning and development

SchoolNuts

• N:

  9663 Whole cohort, 370 Clinical sub-study of participants with suspected food allergy

• Recruitment:

  Children aged 10-14 years and their parents recruited through schools

• Study type:

  Cross-sectional population-based cohort with a clinical assessment sub-study

• Study focus:

  Prevalence of challenge-proven food allergy and predictors of severe adverse reactions to food in early adolescence

The Triple B Pregnancy Cohort Study

The Triple B Pregnancy Cohort Study investigates the effects of parental substance use and mental health on parenting practices, familial functioning and child development.

• N:

  1623 families, 1534 mothers recruited through general antenatal clinics and 89 mothers recruited through specialist drug and alcohol antenatal clinics

  
  
• Recruitment:

  Women attending antenatal services attached to major hospitals, and specialist drug and alcohol antenatal services, in New South Wales and Western Australia (Australia).

  
  
• Study type:

  Longitudinal pre-birth cohort

  
  
• Study focus:

  Effects of substance use and mental health (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs) during pregnancy by women and partners on child development and family functioning

  
  

2000 Stories: The Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study

2000 Stories is comprised of the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study (VAHCS) and the nested intergenerational study, Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (VIHCS)

• N:

  1943

   

• Recruitment:

  14-15 year old Victorian (Australia) school children

   

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

   

• Study focus:

  An ongoing study of continuities, causes and sequelae of adolescent mental health problems and behavioural health risks

   

Victorian Childhood Hearing Longitudinal Databank

• N:

  1300 as of September 2024, with approximately 100 new families recruited each year

• Recruitment:

  All families whose child has been diagnosed with a permanent hearing loss born or residing in Victoria.

• Study type:

  Longitudinal databank with follow-up

• Study focus:

  To create a unique resource for advancing research in childhood deafness; with questionnaires, assessments, biosamples, data linkage and follow-up every few years after enrolment

Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study

2000 Stories is comprised of the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study (VAHCS) and the nested intergenerational study, Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (VIHCS)

• N:

  The commencement sample comprises all infants for whom one or more interviews were completed during the recruitment phase (Waves 1-3), totalling 1030 children born to 665 VAHCS parents.

   

• Recruitment:

  Offspring of the VAHCS participants

   

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

   

• Study focus:

  Mental and physical health problems and risk behaviours in the adolescent to young adulthood transition, and whether pre-conception factors can predict child and parental outcomes into childhood in the next generation

   

Primary prevention of infant food allergy: a randomised controlled trial of postnatal vitamin D supplementation

• N:

  2681 as of November 2021 (intervention and placebo)

• Recruitment:

  Healthy, term, breastfed 6-12 week old infants from council-run immunisation sessions across Melbourne, Australia

• Study type:

  Randomised Control Trial / Other trial

• Study focus:

  Prevention of infant food allergy